Trump is the ‘fourth branch of government’ and Republicans are his slaves, says furious Jan 6 committee member

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Democrat congressman Jamie Raskin has again condemned members of the Republican Party, who he said were “slaves” of the former US president.

Speaking to the House on Wednesday, Mr Raskin compared Donald Trump to a “fourth branch of government” and rebuked Republicans for enabling him by blocking a Congressional investigation into the Capitol riot.

“We were gonna have a 9/11 style independent commission,” said the Maryland Democrat. “Then you know what happened? You know vetoed it? The fourth branch of government, Donald Trump, who some of their members slavishly report to like sycophants.

“Donald Trump said he didn’t any investigation into the attack on this body,” Mr Raskin continued passionately, “He didn’t want any investigation at all”.

While lawmakers on both sides had originally called for a a “9/11” style commission into the Capitol riot in January 2021, a majority of Republicans allegedly pressured by Mr Trump prevented a full-scale probe from taking place.

A smaller bipartisan House committee was then tasked with investigating what happened before, during and after 6 January 2021 when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in the former president’s name.

Mr Raskin continued on Wednesday by taking aim at Republican minority House leader Kevin McCarthy and minority Senate leader Mitch McConnell who he said “pulled the plug on the independent commission”.

“That is exactly why we ended-up with the January 6 select committee in the House of Representatives, which the speaker has made bipartisan ... the most bipartisan committee I’ve been on”.

The speech comes amid a series of important testimonies to the committee, including from Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka this week. The committee recently received emails from Mr Trumps former lawyer, John Eastman, from January 2021.

Also on Wednesday, members of the House voted to hold Trump aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with its requests.

A report from the 6 January committee is due later this year.